Archive for the ‘Press Releases’ Category

KARACHI: August 3rd, 2015 – Emirates, a global connector of people, places and economies, has commenced a nonstop service to Multan, the airline’s sixth destination in Pakistan. Flight EK 630 from Dubai arrived at Multan International Airport on August 1st, 2015 at 22.00 Multan time.

Service to Multan, Pakistan’s 5th largest city by population, commenced with four weekly flights operated by a Boeing 777-300 in a two-class configuration – 54 seats in Business Class and 310 in Economy Class.

Multan is one of the world’s oldest cities with a rich history as a cultural and trade hub. Located on the banks of the Chenab River in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The city is famous for agricultural products such as wheat, cotton, sugar cane, mangoes, citrus, guavas, and pomegranates. Multan is also a commercial and industrial centre, well connected with other industrial hubs such as Lahore, Karachi, Gujranwala, Quetta and Faisalabad.

Emirates flight EK630 departs Dubai at 18:20 and arrives in Multan at 22:00 on Mondays, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. The return flight EK631 leaves Multan at 23:30, arriving in Dubai at 01:20.

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Visa makes strategic investment in Stripe to support international expansion

Karachi, August 05, 2015 – Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) and Stripe, a mobile and online payment provider, today announced a strategic partnership to support new technologies and online payment experiences for merchants, developers and consumers worldwide. Through this relationship, Stripe will accelerate its international expansion, particularly in emerging markets, accessing Visa’s global footprint through its acquiring and issuing partners. To support this growth and joint long-term initiatives, Visa has also made a strategic investment in Stripe.

Working together, the companies will enable a global payments solution for new ecommerce experiences like “buy buttons” and new innovations to come. Stripe will also be one of the first beta partners to connect to Visa’s network capabilities via APIs and SDKs, offering their developer community access to payment and risk management services, Visa’s tokenization service and security technologies. With this joint effort, Visa and Stripe will offer an expanded set of capabilities to the developer community and the payment ecosystem worldwide.

“Given the explosive growth of new commerce experiences enabled by a global developer community, Visa is expanding its strategic relationships across the payments ecosystem,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa. “We are very excited to work with Stripe and leverage our combined assets to broaden our offering to new types of merchants and developers globally.”

“Stripe aims to give developers the tools they need to create the most secure and novel buying experiences,” said Patrick Collison, CEO and co-founder of Stripe. “Our partnership with Visa will accelerate our ability to expand to markets around the world, and give developers even more control over the end-to-end experience. We’re very excited about the potential.”

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Karachi / Dubai, August 18, 2015 – Emirates passengers in Pakistan looking to explore beyond the airline’s network of American destinations now have dozens of options with the Americas Pass.

With one combined ticket, Pakistani travellers flying to any of Emirates’ 10 US destinations via Dubai can connect to over 90 cities across the USA, Canada and Latin America through Emirates’ five partner airlines: Jet Blue, Alaska Airlines, Virgin America, WestJet Airlines and Porter Airlines.

The Americas Pass will allow customers in Pakistan to enjoy competitive fares starting from 99 USD per flight sector within America. The pass will also come with a generous baggage allowance on all internal flights, adopting Emirates’ two-piece policy for flights in Canada, North or South America as well as no minimum stay requirement.

Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates explains: “Emirates’ Americas Pass gives our Pakistani passengers something we’ve never offered before: freedom to explore two continents with a single ticket in conjunction with a longhaul Emirates trip. From Vancouver, Canada to San Juan, Puerto Rico to San Diego, USA and hundreds of destinations in between, Emirates passengers can experience a range of cities, sights and events with ease and flexibility, as well as visiting friends and relatives. ”

Through Emirates local office or with the help of a travel agent, Emirates customers in Pakistan can now simply look at the destination list, browse a variety of options and select the best route to match their itineraries.
Emirates has been serving the US since launching services to New York in 2004 and has carried over nine million passenger in the past decade. The airline currently flies to nine U.S. gateways – Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Washington and New York, and operates a trans-Atlantic route between JFK and Milan. Emirates runs a freighter service to Atlanta and will launch services to Orlando (MCO) beginning September 1, 2015. Pakistani travellers can avail Emirates’ world class services to the US via the airline’s hub, Dubai.

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Cartoon Network Enterprises to be Licensing Representatives for WBCP in the Region

Karachi, August 19, 2015 – Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) and Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, Inc. today announced their agreement under which Turner’s Cartoon Network Enterprises (CNE, licensing and merchandising division) is appointed as the consumer products licensing representative for WBCP in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India. The licencing agent for Pakistan is ‘’Strategic Alliances’’ that is based out of Karachi.

In these markets, WBCP’s rich portfolio will be represented by CNE, consisting of films, television series, animated programs, and more. This includes iconic brands such as DC Comics Super Heroes Batman, Superman and The Flash, as well as Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter, and The Hobbit Trilogy, among many others. The wide spectrum of WBCP’s licensing categories includes apparel, accessories, publishing, stationery, toys, gifts, novelties, as well as branded foods, personal care products and licensed advertising promotions as key categories in the region.

“Turner has always been our close partner as we support their broadcasting and marketing of animation programs in the region,” said Bianca Lee, Managing Director of Warner Bros. Consumer Products, Greater China, Southeast Asia and India. “This extension of our relationship will now include representation of our consumer products licensing business in the region, which is a strategic collaboration that will be mutually beneficial.”

CNE has an impressive licensing portfolio in South Asia, and WBCP is thrilled to become part of their network of 76 partners across, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, which also includes their strong footprints in traditional retail, modern trade and ecommerce. CNE was awarded the ‘Licensor of the Year Award’ by Franchise India in May 2015.

Speaking on the announcement, Ricky Ow, President of Turner Asia Pacific, said, “This association embodies the spirit of collaboration within Time Warner and leverages our combined organisation’s strengths. We already operate some of the most loved leading brands in South Asia and this collaboration will benefit from our proven success and the future investments we will make in the region. We are delighted to add WBCP to our portfolio and are very bullish on its growth opportunities.”

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Karachi, August 18, 2015 – Gerry’s dnata, the largest ground handler in Pakistan, has ramped up its scale of operations in Pakistan with the commencement of its service at three new airports in Pakistan investing over USD four million, further underpinning its position as a key aviation partner in the country.

To support the growth of the aviation industry across Pakistan, Gerry’s dnata has launched services at Multan International airport (MUX) , Quetta International (UET) and Faisalabad International (LYP) Across the country, Gerry’s dnata expects to increase its staff count by 140 to accommodate the new services at these locations creating local job opportunities for Pakistanis.

“We have been supporting the aviation industry in Pakistan since 1993,” said Syed Haris Raza, Vice President of Gerry’s dnata. “This expansion will help the industry continue to grow and meet the needs of the travel and cargo communities.”

“The aviation industry in Pakistan continues to grow, and as a trusted partner, our goal is to ensure the smooth handling of flights, passengers, and cargo across the country. Our new locations add cargo capacity, passenger handling capabilities and create new jobs—a good thing for the industry and the economy,” added Raza.

The new airport locations increase Gerry’s dnata footprint to seven airports across Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar, and makes it the largest ground handler in Pakistan, now able to welcome over three million passengers in and out of these locations every year.

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Karachi, August 12, 2015: Joining hands to address the critical issue of malnutrition, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and Tetra Pak Pakistan launch the #DrinkMoreMilk campaign under the Grow Healthy Pakistan initiative to create awareness of benefits linked with drinking milk. People of every age, including women, children and elderly, suffer from diseases like arthritis, osteoporosis and stunted growth due to nutrition deficiencies that can be alleviated with regular milk intake.

In his message to the people, PMA President Dr Ashraf Nizami said that milk is a unique natural package of essential nutrients required for the proper functioning of the body. “It contains not only calcium and vitamin D but also significant amount of other essential nutrients such as protein, iodine, vitamin A and phosphorus among others.” It is important for every individual to make a habit of regular milk consumption to maintain a healthy lifestyle, he added.

Talking about the role of UHT technology in promoting milk drinking, Tetra Pak Pakistan Marketing Director Assad Abbas said, “UHT milk is the most viable and effective dairy nutrition solution for Pakistan. Due to aseptic packaging and processing technology, it has a much longer shelf life and can be distributed far and wide in the country without the need for refrigeration. In the UHT process, raw milk is heated very rapidly to a temperature of around 137 degrees Celsius for just a few seconds, and then rapidly cooled. This technology ensures that practically all pathogens are eliminated, while the essential nutrients in the milk are maintained.”

He added that as the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company with its vision to make food safe and available everywhere, Tetra Pak can play a pivotal role in the fight against malnutrition in Pakistan.”
Speaking about the partnership with the PMA, Tetra Pak Pakistan Communication Manager Fahad Maral said, “malnutrition may not be as prominent in public discourse as some of the other socio-economic issues Pakistan is facing, but it is surely an extremely serious issue. Our cooperation with the PMA is an integral part of our broader Grow Healthy Pakistan initiative to highlight the value of milk in overcoming malnutrition, especially among children.”

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Karachi , August 20, 2015: In 2008 The Coca-Cola Foundation gave a grant of U.S.$ 230,000 to WWF-Pakistan to launch a comprehensive project for sub-watershed management in and around Ayubia National Park in the Murree Hills area. Since then the Foundation has further funded the project every year, and till June this year, the total funding provided to the project over 7 years has exceeded U.S.$ 886,000. As a result this environmental project has resulted in substantial and sustainable benefits accruing.

Now The Coca-Cola Foundation has approved a further grant of U.S.$ 90,500 for the year 2015-16, making this possibly the longest running corporate funded environmental project in the country. This is a testimony to the success of Coca-Cola & WWF’s efforts to protect the watershed and promote environmental conservation, resulting in a measurable difference in the ecosystem of project areas, and in local communities benefiting directly.

The Coca-Cola Foundation has also approved a further grant of U.S.$ 100,000.00 to the Kashf Foundation for an ongoing women empowerment programme which was started off 3 years ago. Over 3,350 women have so far been empowered to establish small business and create livelihoods for themselves and their families. Previously The Coca-Cola Foundation has already given grants totally U.S.$ 380,000 to Kashf Foundation.

The noteworthy factor of both the fresh grants made by Coca-Cola is that funding has been provided to projects that make a measurable positive impact and result in long-term sustainable benefits. The approach is therefore not to provide temporary relief, but to create infrastructure and opportunities that will continue to provide life-changing socio-economic uplift to the beneficiaries and local communities even when corporate funding is no longer available.

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Karachi, August 27, 2015 – Jubilee Insurance, the leading insurance brand in Pakistan, launched their Takaful business in an impressive event at a hotel in Karachi. The event, hosted jointly by both Jubilee Life and Jubilee General, marked the commencement of the highly anticipated launch of Takaful business.

The event was hosted by the top management of both companies for key stakeholders.

“Jubilee Life has been working to develop innovative solutions that are beneficial for Pakistanis of all walks of life,” said Mr. Javed Ahmed, MD & CEO, Jubilee Life. “The launch of Jubilee Takaful is a step towards the industry’s growth – something we are major advocates of. As has been our tradition, we will continue our pursuit of developing world class insurance and Takaful products for the Pakistani market.”

Mr. Tahir Ahmed, MD & CEO, Jubilee General said: “Our aim always is to provide our customers with top quality insurance services and the launch of our Takaful service is a reiteration of our pursuit.”

Mr. Nadym Chandna, Head of Family Takaful, Jubilee Life, Mr. Sohail Ahmed, Head of General Takaful, Jubilee General and Mufti Zeeshan Abdul Aziz, the Shariah Advisor also spoke on the occasion.